As part of their countdown to the release of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2,” the LA Times’ Hero Complex blog has been publishing new and exclusive interviews with the cast and crew of Harry Potter.

Yesterday, actor Matthew Lewis described his character Neville Longbottom as a “beaten, battered war veteran” in the final film. He talks about Neville leading the Hogwarts students during the battle and having his “Gryffindor moment.”

“It’s that weird thing that Jo [J.K. Rowling] did when she wrote the character. Everyone was sort of thinking, “Well, why is he in Gryffindor?” And it just shows that you don’t have to be perfect. You don’t have to be a Brad Pitt look-alike hero just to be courageous and help out your friends and come through when it really matters. I think everyone can sort of relate to that in some way, particularly back to people’s school days. Like, I wasn’t on the football team at school or whatever, but it doesn’t matter. You can still make a difference.”

Behind the scenes, visual effects supervisor Tim Burke has worked on the films since “Chamber of Secrets” and reminisces with the LA Times about some of his best work on Harry Potter. Burke admits he is slowly coming to the realization that the films are now complete, and he also gives high praise to the 3-D used in “Part 2.”

“I think people are going to be really pleased. I know everyone’s a little nervous and skeptical of 3-D these days, but the work has been done very, very well. We’ve done over 200 shots in 3-D and in the visual effects as well, because so much of it is CG, so the results are very, very good. I think everyone’s going to be really impressed with it, actually.”